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squirrelsohno's review against another edition
3.0
What is there to say about DUALED that hasn’t been said before? Let’s just be honest with ourselves – DUALED is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous books I’ve ever read when it comes to the premise. In the walled city of Kersh, a city with no entrance or exit, each person has an Alt – a clone – who they must kill when activated between the ages of 10 and 19 to prove their worth as a fighter for their city. Each child is trained in weapons, fighting, tracking, and so on to prepare them for the moment they will be activated and sent to kill their Alt or be killed trying.
No, this book doesn’t make much sense. It’s a book that glorifies violence to an extent, revolves around death and destruction and murder, and focuses on the point that a city deals with overcrowding and a need for soldiers by creating two of everyone and letting 12 year olds fight in gun battles on open city streets sanctioned by the government. Obviously the strengths of DUALED do not lie in its synopsis or overall plot, but what makes up for it is the tenacity of our heroine and the general fun-ness of this story. It’s a thrill ride from beginning to end that hooks you and won’t let you go.
SILLY, BUT ENTERTAINING!
DUALED follows West, a girl living in a world where she and her closest allies have the only normal names in the whole bunch. But that’s beside the point. West is 15, has just lost her last family member, and is alone in the world with few options. Soon she will be activated and sent to murder her Alt before her Alt murders her. Assisting her is her brother’s best friend Chord, the requisite love interest who also serves as the possessive, protective figure in her life, to the point where he stalks her under the impression of trying to save her life. It’s not cute.
This book will not be for the reader looking for something serious. I mean, how can a book be taken seriously when the plot makes about as much sense as a pig flying in with machine guns blazing to save America? But what it makes up for poor conception is with a fun, entertaining unfolding of events. It’s quick, it’s entertaining, and it kept me glued to the page, which is something to save against many of the books out there in this same overdone subgenre. This might possibly have been the sole redeeming feature of DUALED, because other than being a whole lot of fun, there wasn’t a whole lot going for it. Besides maybe our heroine.
WELCOME TO CRAZY CITY, POPULATION WEST
Another redeeming feature of this story was West, our lead character and the character who leads us through the story. She’s determined to live at all costs, even becoming an assassin for hire in order to get more practice in the field of killing helpless teenagers. But that’s really beside the point. I quite enjoyed her, even if I didn’t enjoy those around her. Even if I didn’t quite understand or rationalize her decisions at times. Even if her complete rejection of assistance until the convenient climax was frustrating.
The characters around her rarely question the setup of their city state, and the world is rarely addressed in great detail besides emphasizing, “To live in Kersh, you must kill someone.”
AND THE REST ARE HERE IN THE CITY OF KERSH
DUALED was actually better than I expected when I went in. I want to thank that forgotten blogger who urged me to read it despite the ridiculous concept. I think I was drunk at the time I started this, the power was out and my options were limited. Despite the unresolved aspects, the clinginess of the love interest, and the fact little of the world is ever really discussed, it was fun. It’s a fun novel, not a deep insightful exposition about the human psyche and the meaning of life. Don’t go into it expecting it and maybe you’ll come out at the end, amused and a bit bewildered but happy.
VERDICT: Although it makes little to no sense, DUALED is a fun thrill ride with a proactive heroine and a lot of fun. It’s fun. I’ll give it that.
No, this book doesn’t make much sense. It’s a book that glorifies violence to an extent, revolves around death and destruction and murder, and focuses on the point that a city deals with overcrowding and a need for soldiers by creating two of everyone and letting 12 year olds fight in gun battles on open city streets sanctioned by the government. Obviously the strengths of DUALED do not lie in its synopsis or overall plot, but what makes up for it is the tenacity of our heroine and the general fun-ness of this story. It’s a thrill ride from beginning to end that hooks you and won’t let you go.
SILLY, BUT ENTERTAINING!
DUALED follows West, a girl living in a world where she and her closest allies have the only normal names in the whole bunch. But that’s beside the point. West is 15, has just lost her last family member, and is alone in the world with few options. Soon she will be activated and sent to murder her Alt before her Alt murders her. Assisting her is her brother’s best friend Chord, the requisite love interest who also serves as the possessive, protective figure in her life, to the point where he stalks her under the impression of trying to save her life. It’s not cute.
This book will not be for the reader looking for something serious. I mean, how can a book be taken seriously when the plot makes about as much sense as a pig flying in with machine guns blazing to save America? But what it makes up for poor conception is with a fun, entertaining unfolding of events. It’s quick, it’s entertaining, and it kept me glued to the page, which is something to save against many of the books out there in this same overdone subgenre. This might possibly have been the sole redeeming feature of DUALED, because other than being a whole lot of fun, there wasn’t a whole lot going for it. Besides maybe our heroine.
WELCOME TO CRAZY CITY, POPULATION WEST
Another redeeming feature of this story was West, our lead character and the character who leads us through the story. She’s determined to live at all costs, even becoming an assassin for hire in order to get more practice in the field of killing helpless teenagers. But that’s really beside the point. I quite enjoyed her, even if I didn’t enjoy those around her. Even if I didn’t quite understand or rationalize her decisions at times. Even if her complete rejection of assistance until the convenient climax was frustrating.
The characters around her rarely question the setup of their city state, and the world is rarely addressed in great detail besides emphasizing, “To live in Kersh, you must kill someone.”
AND THE REST ARE HERE IN THE CITY OF KERSH
DUALED was actually better than I expected when I went in. I want to thank that forgotten blogger who urged me to read it despite the ridiculous concept. I think I was drunk at the time I started this, the power was out and my options were limited. Despite the unresolved aspects, the clinginess of the love interest, and the fact little of the world is ever really discussed, it was fun. It’s a fun novel, not a deep insightful exposition about the human psyche and the meaning of life. Don’t go into it expecting it and maybe you’ll come out at the end, amused and a bit bewildered but happy.
VERDICT: Although it makes little to no sense, DUALED is a fun thrill ride with a proactive heroine and a lot of fun. It’s fun. I’ll give it that.
fyrekatz's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty good story and the characters tho there was times I was like get it on... the story was dragging at times for me but still good book!
tasha_v's review
I typically like books that make me think. I still can't figure out how this society is functioning? Even sort of.
talontarget's review against another edition
2.0
dnf'ed @ 33%. cool concept, just not into the execution of it.
vidhi26p's review against another edition
4.0
Such an amazing book with a very original idea and plot.
bookswritingandmore's review against another edition
4.0
i wasn't expecting half of the adrenaline rush this book delivered easily. It was always unexpected and completely exciting.
A story of a girl who is the last one left in her family. A world she despises but has to live in. The only way to survive is to kill your counterpart before they kill you. Such a unique story that is told at the right pace and a great read.
I love books that make my heart pump and surprises me continuously without fail
A story of a girl who is the last one left in her family. A world she despises but has to live in. The only way to survive is to kill your counterpart before they kill you. Such a unique story that is told at the right pace and a great read.
I love books that make my heart pump and surprises me continuously without fail
christajls's review against another edition
2.0
This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic
Simply put this novel is an exercise in bad decision making. If West (our protagonist) was as clever as the book kept telling me she was, then it didn’t make sense for her to continually and consistently make poor decisions. She should have been able to at least speculate on why something would end up working against her. But every time she was reckless and impulsive and I wished I could jump into the story and talk some sense into her.
Although to be fair, it may not be West’s fault that she made such poor choices, since the premise of the novel itself was a little shaky. I couldn’t understand why a society that was so poor would spend so much of their resources on the Alternate system. There was a brief explanation about breeding the strongest people but a society built solely on physical strength is doomed to fail and furthermore it seemed like all the money and resources invested in the manufacturing of alts could have been better spent on education and other programs that would have also created a stronger, smarter population but with a lot less bloodshed.
Simply put this novel is an exercise in bad decision making. If West (our protagonist) was as clever as the book kept telling me she was, then it didn’t make sense for her to continually and consistently make poor decisions. She should have been able to at least speculate on why something would end up working against her. But every time she was reckless and impulsive and I wished I could jump into the story and talk some sense into her.
Although to be fair, it may not be West’s fault that she made such poor choices, since the premise of the novel itself was a little shaky. I couldn’t understand why a society that was so poor would spend so much of their resources on the Alternate system. There was a brief explanation about breeding the strongest people but a society built solely on physical strength is doomed to fail and furthermore it seemed like all the money and resources invested in the manufacturing of alts could have been better spent on education and other programs that would have also created a stronger, smarter population but with a lot less bloodshed.
rhaenyrareads's review against another edition
4.0
J'hésite entre un 3,5/5 et 4/5. Ce que j'ai aimé dans ce livre c'est qu'il y a de l'action. il n'y a pas trop de temps morts. sauf qu'il y manque quelque chose. peut être que c'était trop restreint. et un peu répétitif. mais c'était une bonne lecture
kbrownreads's review against another edition
4.0
it was Ok. not mind blowingly awesome but nit terrible
bookishvice's review against another edition
3.0
Kersh is one of the last safe haven cities in the world. To maintain this status The Board has created a system to eliminate weak ones and breed the rest into soldiers who can defend their city. For this, every person is born with a twin, an alternate who they only meet once they’re activated to kill each other. After an alternate finishes a mission, he becomes a complete and has access to privileges the Idles, people who haven’t been activated to kill their alts, don’t have.
All that remains of West Grayer’s family is her brother, the rest failed their missions. But West has been training for the day they activate her, and she is confident she’ll do anything to survive. But then her brother dies in a accident, and she spirals into a dark cloud of grief. West thinks there’s nothing worth fighting for anymore, but her childhood friend is not about to let her give up.
Elsie Chapman’s Dualed is full of action and hard choices, as West searches for a reason to survive.
West is your typical kickass girl. She’s a fighter with a fiery temper and will, but she’s also horribly stubborn and this leads her to make some unreasonable decisions. Like become a Striker, a killer for hire, and terminating other alts but not hers. She also shuts out Chord, the only person left in her life who can help her. I just couldn’t understand that. Her alt was smarter than her in that aspect.
Overall, I didn’t connect with West, and as a reader who puts characters above all else, this was an issue for me. I couldn’t get involved in the world of Dualed because of her.
There’s a tiny bit of romance with Chord, but like I mentioned before West shuts him out. This means we don’t get much of it. Still, it was nice seeing him come back again and again, trying to reason with her. Helping her every step of the way in however way he could. It was very frustrating to read those parts. West keeps pushing him away, hurting him on purpose so that he stays away. She says she’s doing it because she loves him and wants him to be safe, but I just never felt the spark from her side of things.
The Board is the real threat, yet for all the illegal stuff West did, she never even got close to being in trouble. I wanted to see more injustice by the Board or something. I know this is only the first book, and maybe in others the Board will be more involved. But the ending pretty much wrapped it all up and I don’t think I’ll be up to round two with West.
*Arc copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley*
All that remains of West Grayer’s family is her brother, the rest failed their missions. But West has been training for the day they activate her, and she is confident she’ll do anything to survive. But then her brother dies in a accident, and she spirals into a dark cloud of grief. West thinks there’s nothing worth fighting for anymore, but her childhood friend is not about to let her give up.
Elsie Chapman’s Dualed is full of action and hard choices, as West searches for a reason to survive.
West is your typical kickass girl. She’s a fighter with a fiery temper and will, but she’s also horribly stubborn and this leads her to make some unreasonable decisions. Like become a Striker, a killer for hire, and terminating other alts but not hers. She also shuts out Chord, the only person left in her life who can help her. I just couldn’t understand that. Her alt was smarter than her in that aspect.
Overall, I didn’t connect with West, and as a reader who puts characters above all else, this was an issue for me. I couldn’t get involved in the world of Dualed because of her.
There’s a tiny bit of romance with Chord, but like I mentioned before West shuts him out. This means we don’t get much of it. Still, it was nice seeing him come back again and again, trying to reason with her. Helping her every step of the way in however way he could. It was very frustrating to read those parts. West keeps pushing him away, hurting him on purpose so that he stays away. She says she’s doing it because she loves him and wants him to be safe, but I just never felt the spark from her side of things.
The Board is the real threat, yet for all the illegal stuff West did, she never even got close to being in trouble. I wanted to see more injustice by the Board or something. I know this is only the first book, and maybe in others the Board will be more involved. But the ending pretty much wrapped it all up and I don’t think I’ll be up to round two with West.
*Arc copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley*